SAN MARCOS — I love barbecue as much as the next carnivore. So when I heard that the National Barbecue Association's annual conference, trade show and barbecue cook-off was coming to San Marcos — yes, San Marcos — I knew I had to check it out.

The first RV to catch my eye was big and white with “Operation BBQ Relief” printed boldly on the side. There I met Jon Orr and Bryan McLarty, two members of the group that formed following the massive Joplin, Mo., tornado of 2011. Soon after the storm, a small band of barbecue enthusiasts drove to what was left of the city and started cooking and serving those in need.

Since then, the group has traveled to other disaster sites, including New Jersey following Superstorm Sandy, Colorado during the wildfires of 2012 and the town of West after last year's fertilizer plant explosion. Now a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation, Operation BBQ Relief has served more than half a million meals — including nonmeat options for vegetarian victims. Count yourself lucky if you haven't been on the receiving end of their beneficence.

Next I stopped at the Cheerwine booth and was only a tad disappointed to learn that Cheerwine is an almost 100-year-old soft drink made in North Carolina and not, in fact, wine.

Jeff Huber, the company's senior manager for business development, said they're expanding distribution of the soft drink into Texas, and it's currently available at select H-E-Bs and Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores, as well at Cured and Spec's wine and liquor stores.

I tasted a sample. It reminded me of Dr Pepper but with a more pronounced cherry flavor. And for those who care about such things, it's made with real cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Maybe it was the sugar high, but next I got the dumb idea to ask some of the folks smoking meat for the upcoming cook-off to reveal to me their secret to great barbecue.

Boy, was that a mistake. After being on the receiving end of several less-than-pleasant looks and a couple of curt remarks (“Trip 'em,” was about the only one I can print here), I headed into the hotel to check out a trade show where exhibitors displayed barbecue-related products such as D&W BBQ Company's Gourmet Sauce.

The sauce is made from the late Tina Wright's family recipe. Like a lot of cooks with a specialty, Wright often was told by friends and family that she should bottle and sell her barbecue sauce. But it wasn't until after she died of colon cancer in 2010 that her son Deke and husband, Will, (the D and W in the name) decided to do just that. They also donate $1 for every bottle sold to the Colon Cancer Alliance and the Tina Wright Memorial Art Scholarship.

The sauce is pretty good, with just the right touch of sweetness. Good enough, in fact, to win the NBBQA's People's Choice Award for best barbecue sauce at the conference. Unfortunately, it's not yet sold in San Antonio, so you'll have to buy it online at www.dwbbq.com to try it yourself.

In addition to sauce, there were plenty of other companies hawking barbecue-related products. I saw infrared thermometers that will tell you when your grill surface reaches 700 degrees so you can properly sear a steak, cutesy metal signs reading “Keep Calm and Grill On” and “Natural Born Griller” to gussy up your cooking area, even copies of the “Kansas City Barbecue Society Cookbook” (in Texas? For real?).

Then I turned the corner and spotted the Holy Grill of smokers. Made from 12-gauge steel with hydraulic lid lifters, two cooking racks and an automatic-fill water pan, the MMS-48” from Myron Mixon Smokers can handle 34 half chickens at a time. Or 20 racks of baby back ribs. Or an 80-pound hog if you're going for a luau theme.

It was truly a thing of beauty. Of course, I've never smoked more than a single Thanksgiving turkey at a time. And at $4,995, the price tag quickly dampened my grill lust.

But then I noticed the display grill was on casters and a thought occurred to me. Maybe if I can get a couple of the guys from the neighborhood to chip in and if we shared it among ourselves ...